Chris Hummel

Both a litigator and regulatory advisor, Chris Hummel practises at the intersections of environmental law, Indigenous law, and energy law. Chris routinely advises on complex and novel legal matters, ranging from technical, science-driven advocacy to emergent issues in constitutional law.

Environmental and Land Use Litigation

Chris advocates for clients in courts, tribunals and environmental assessment processes. Chris has litigated several land-related disputes, ranging from land contamination actions to property rights applications for possession of land, easements, trespass damages, and injunctions.

Chris has also provided strategic advice to Indigenous governments, companies, and municipalities in high-profile environmental assessments of mines, landfills, and infrastructure projects. With accredited training in land use planning, Chris regularly assists with municipal planning matters, including those that raise difficult jurisdictional and constitutional questions.

Indigenous Law

Chris is published on the subject of Impact-Benefit Agreements (IBAs) between Indigenous governments and industry, and has been involved in several IBA negotiations. In addition to drafting IBAs, he has drafted by-laws, codes, policies, resolutions, and commercial agreements for Indigenous governments and corporations.

As a former Nunavut resident, Chris works passionately within the firm's Canada North Practice Group. He has lived in Iqaluktuuttiaq (Cambridge Bay), where he taught high school and coached hockey, Panniqtuuq (Pangnirtung), where he studied Arctic ecology and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (Inuit Traditional Knowledge), Iqaluit, where he worked for the Qikiqtani Inuit Association's legal counsel, and Manitoulin Island, where he worked for M'Chigeeng First Nation's legal counsel.

Energy Regulation

Chris' energy practice focuses on the energy transition. He has provided regulatory advice to electric utilities and companies in the business of grid-scale battery storage, micro-grids, electric vehicle charging, lithium-ion battery recycling, energy efficiency, renewable power generation, and small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). He has also advised fuel distributors on their exposure to carbon pricing under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act.

Education

During law school, Chris won awards for academic achievement and was selected as a Dean's Fellow for excelling in professor Brian Slattery's Constitutional Law class. He graduated from Osgoode Hall's joint JD/Master in Environmental Studies program, having completed a land use planning accreditation and Osgoode's intensive program in Indigenous Lands, Resources, and Governments. He also holds BEd and BSc (Biology and Anthropology) degrees.

As a student co-director of Osgoode's Fair Change Legal Clinic, which advocates for people who are homeless or street-involved, Chris helped launch a Charter challenge of the Ontario Safe Streets Act. He remains involved with Fair Change by sitting on its board of directors and acting as counsel on its Charter challenge.

In his spare time, Chris plays the keyboard and is learning to speak French and Inuktut.